The fire remains under investigation, according to fire officials. Residents said lightning struck around 6:20 p.m., blowing bricks from the chimney and igniting the fire.
"I was in bed watching TV and the next thing I can tell you the ceiling came down with sparks with a loud boom," resident Tony Harrell said.
Maryanne Sinal said the storm was unlike anything she had heard before.
"That lighting and thunder was huge, nothing like I've ever heard, I knew it hit something," Sinal said.
Fire Chief Brian Harnois said crews were already responding to storm-related emergencies when the call came in.
"They responded to a lot of storm calls tonight. They were on their way to two calls at the very time that this happened. Since about 5 o'clock they were responding to storm-related calls throughout the city," Harnois said.
Dozens of firefighters responded to the two-alarm blaze and arrived within four minutes. Officials said crews were able to contain and extinguish the fire in the attic by blowing out windows and opening walls and ceilings to reach the flames.
"It takes a lot to put out a fire like this, especially in a very big home like this is with multiple apartments in there. They had to make sure they conducted a primary search, and everyone was out safely. So that's always a struggle for us," Harnois said.
Mayor Elizabeth Fagan urged residents to pay attention to severe weather warnings.
"We all heard this was coming. There were flood warnings and tornado watches and all those things from the National Weather Service for the past 24 hours. I think people need to heed those because something like this can happen at any moment," Fagan said.
Fire officials said the building contains nine apartments.
Although no injuries were reported, residents were not permitted to return to their homes Thursday night, pending a determination from the Department of Buildings that the structure is safe to occupy.
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